Airdrie & Coatbridge Advertiser
Festive school hols remain unchanged
Public health advice is there would be less transmission through children and young people being in school than mixing out of school
Christmas holidays for North Lanarkshire schools will remain unchanged after deputy first minister John Swinney announced that there will be no national extension to the festive break in relation to coronavirus infections.
He wrote to Holyrood’s education committee: “The public health advice that I received is to keep schools open, as the controlled environment is more preferable to social mixing outside of school if [they] are closed early.”
It means schools in Airdrie and Coatbridge will still close for Christmas as planned after classes conclude on the afternoon of Tuesday, December 22, and will reopen on Wednesday, January 6.
Scottish Government officials had considered standardising and extending school holiday dates across the country to help prevent the spread of coronavirus, but Mr Swinney announced that the Covid-19 advisory group on education had concluded “there should be no change”.
He wrote: “Public health advice is, on balance, that there would be less transmission of Covid- 19 through children and young people being in school than mixing out of school.
“Adding this to the issues around vulnerable children and the need for childcare for key worker children, advice is to not change term dates at either end.
“Vulnerable children may be at greater risk if they are out of school for an extended period. The longer children are out of school, the more chance there is of hidden harm.”
He added: “The group reiterated that there is no evidence that schools and early-learning settings are driving transmission, and there is no clear rationale for disrupting them and children’s education.”
Nicola Sturgeon added at First Minister’s Questions: “We considered very carefully the issue of school holidays.
“The advice reflects that this is a difficult decision, but the balanced judgment is that the risk of transmission in schools is not sufficient to outweigh the risk to children’s education of being out of school for longer periods of time.”
Councils will be asked to have arrangements in place to minimise the risk of school staff being required to take part in contact tracing.
Mr Swinney’s letter says:
“One issue where there is broad consensus is around the need for school staff to have their planned holidays without interruption due to the need to engage in contact tracing.
“We also want to avoid families being disturbed on or around Christmas Day due to any outbreaks which may involve a school prior to the start of the holiday period.”
The decision was criticised by teachers’ union the EIS, who said it “shows a complete disregard for the concerns and welfare of teachers” and wi l l “disappoint and anger many” staff.
General secretary Larry Flanagan said: “We had asked that schools move to remote learning in the final week to ensure that senior staff did not find themselves having to work during Christmas to deal with any Covid outbreaks, and also to minimise the risk for staff, pupils and parents of infections ruining the Christmas break.
“Allowing this would have helped protect staff, students and their families during the festive season and reduced the risk of pupils or teachers being required to self-isolate over Christmas, while also ensuring that education provision continued via remote learning.”